Souji Hiura
|age=15 |first=(Manga) Chapter 203 (masked) Chapter 222 (unmasked) |affiliation=Karasumori (former) Sousui |occupation=Puppet Soldier |power=Blade Materialization |relative= |nick=Sangou |extra= }} Hiura Souji (氷浦蒼士,Sōji Hiura) (written as Soji Hiura in the Viz Manga) is sent to Karasumori on the order to assist the kekkaishi of the land. He is little more than a puppet who obeys the orders of his masters, and his most recent command was to obey the orders of the kekkaishi. Yoshimori meets Souji with discontent, but eventually grows fond of him and is saddened by his puppet like state. Souji is initially compared to Gen by Tokine, something that angers Yoshimori. After Souji's disappearance, Yoshimori falls into a short state of depression until he leaves for training with his mother's shikigami. Appearance Souji has spiky blue hair and often wears a dark cloak. His most notable feature, though, are his eyes, which Yoshimori originally compared to that of a dead man.Kekkaishi manga, Chapter 204 He was raised to have little emotion, and thus has a permanent neutral expression, though he will frown when truly upset. Personality Souji appears to be the foremost example of the Sousui's puppet soldier program: at most times, he appears to have little or no emotion, yet excels in battle to an almost frightening degree, sometimes to the point of ruthlessness when unnecessary.Kekkaishi manga, Chapter 226 After some exposure to Tokine and especially Yoshimori, Souji's relationship with them becomes more solid, despite obvious trust issues. He especially takes any promise he makes to Yoshimori seriously, and seems to truly regret any time that he is unable to keep them. History Souji was originally known as "Sangou," one of the Sousui's puppet soldiers, created to be perfect fighters with no emotions to hinder them. His name was given to him by Suigetsu, who also showed him how to write it.Kekkaishi manga, Chapter 253 Plot Souji first appears outside Hidagou after Yoshimori leaves the crumbling dimension, though he's wearing a hat and scarf that cover his face with the exception of his eyes. He sees the tenketsu-like object Yoshimori had found and tries to retrieve it, which leads Yoshimori to determine that he played a large part in the Shinyuuchi hunting.Kekkaishi manga, Chapter 203 After overpowering Yoshimori and retrieving the object, he flees only to later appear at Karasumori, claiming to have been ordered to protect it and obey the orders of the kekkaishi. Instantly Yoshimori recognizes him based on his eyes and is very suspicious of him, and declares that Souji will stay at his house after learning that he has a letter asking the Yukimura family to stay with them. Paranoia causes Yoshimori to place a kekkai around Souji at night so he may not sneak out and attack anyone, though this is both unnecessary (as he'd ordered Souji not to leave, and Souji seems incapable of disobeying orders) and useless (Souji proved he could easily cut though Yoshimori's kekkai when they first met in Hidagou). The next day Yoshimori and Tokine are surprised that he does not plan to attend school, and he spends the day helping Shuji Sumimura clean up the house. Souji assists the kekkaishi with their duties and Yoshimori takes him to the forest to talk, where he realizes that Souji was brought up to be rather simple-minded after Souji inquires if he himself is human due to Yoshimori's comment about him being strange. Sen follows him one night to a secret rendezvous with a suspicious conversation, and remains suspicious of him and tries to convince others, but his attempts are ignored. Yoshimori decides to trust Hiura and makes him promise not to let anyone around them get hurt, even himself. Yoshimori gives him a mechanical pencil he's interested in, and he seems to treasure it greatly. When Hiura is absent on the same night as Okuni's death, the mechanical pencil is found there by her underlings and is connected to Yoshimori. In turn, he makes Hiura promise that if he feels like killing anyone else again, he will first come and try to kill Yoshimori so that he may stop him. During the attack on Karasumori, Hiura fights Ichigou and Nigou, and in the process saves Sen from Ichigou, and the other realizes that his injuries are worse than he's showing, keeping them secret so that he won't have to break his promise to Yoshimori about not getting hurt. He is about to defeat Nigou when he remembers that promise to Yoshimori and hesitates, giving Ichigou the opportunity to rescue Nigou. Later when Shichirou Ougi arrives, he accidentally attacks Hiura thinking he's Ichigou, putting him in critical condition. When he eventually woke up, he was devastated over breaking his promise to Yoshimori not to get hurt, though he's reassured. Sazanami is then revealed to have arrived with plans to interrogate Hiura, and a look into his memories revealed Suigetsu and a block put on by another psychic to prevent others from gaining too much information from his memories. To celebrate Hiura waking up, Yoshimori bakes a giant cake for him. After Hiura decides he likes "black cake" (chocolate) better, Yoshimori makes a chocolate cake for him, only to discover Hiura missing from his bed. Yoshimori would become depressed until he left with his mother to find a new home for Chushinmaru. Hiura would later be seen various times with Zero at another Shinyuuchi hunting and various other times in the company of the Sousui. Zero states in a conversation with Ichigou that it seems as if Hiura's now doing some "soul searching", as he seems to zone out a lot and look into space. Whether Hiura plans to return to Yoshimori's side or not remains to be unseen. Powers & Abilities Blade Materialization: Souji's primary weapons are large, glowing blades that he can materialize from seemingly any area on his arms and legs. He can increase the length, size, and number of the blades at will. Ayakashi Majiri-Level Body: Members of the Night Troop observe that Souji's body displays levels of agility, strength, and endurance that only an ayakashi majiri should be capable of, yet they can sense no aura from him that would indicate that he is one.Kekkaishi manga, Chapter 225 Souji can also use the same aura that shapes his blades as a barrier to lessen damage, and to boost the muscles in his limbs. References Category:Characters